A weld may include one or more discontinuities. Welds are often manually inspected by human inspectors who make a subjective determination about whether a discontinuity in the weld may cause the weld to fail. If the discontinuity is unlikely to cause the weld to fail, it is identified by the inspector as an acceptable discontinuity. If, however, the discontinuity is likely to cause the weld to fail, it is identified by the inspector as a rejectable discontinuity, also known as a defect. An example of a rejectable discontinuity or defect may be a lack of fusion between two parts that are welded together. Upon determining that a given discontinuity is rejectable, the inspector may mark the location of the rejectable discontinuity on the weld so that a welder may fix the weld accordingly. There is typically no record as to why the weld was considered to be defective by the human inspector.
More recently, welds can be inspected using computer imaging techniques. Significant advances have been made in the field of two-dimensional or “2D” imaging for non-destructive weld evaluation. However, the technology is stilt limited both by the lack of a convenient manner of encoding the location of the 2D imaging information relative to the weld of interest, and by the subjective nature of the image interpretation, which is performed by a human inspector.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,616,062 describes a method of ultrasonically inspecting a test object using an immersion technique. However, the method does not alleviate the problem of providing a convenient means of gathering relevant encoded ultrasonic data.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2014/0058266 describes an ultrasound imaging system memory architecture. However, the system does not provide an objective, repeatable assessment of weld discontinuities.